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Pizza Hut
-
The Number One Pizza Chain

When we think of great or historic pizza cities, Wichita, Kansas does
not spring to mind. And yet Wichita is the birthplace of the
most successful chain of pizza places (it's hard to bring ourselves to
call them "pizzerias") in the world. It wasn't the first
pizza chain (that would be Shakey's
- 1954) but it's the biggest.

The First
Pizza Hut
and The First Dough

On May 31, 1958, Dan and Frank Carney opened the first Pizza Hut on
Kellogg Street in Wichita. The two college-age brothers
started the business with $600 that they borrowed from their mother.
They had never run a restaurant,
never owned a business, and until 1958 had never made a pizza.
In fact, Dan had only tried pizza when he was in the service, and Frank
had tasted pizza exactly once - at a steakhouse in Wichita.

They took a partner - John Bender - who had worked in a pizzeria in
Bloomington, Indiana. He knew how to make "pizza sauce" but
couldn't remember how to make pizza dough - so they settled on a recipe
for french bread.

According to the promotional book, The
Pizza Hut Story:

Because
there was not
enough time for the dough to rise, Bender just rolled it out, making
the crust thin and crispy.

"It was good!" Frank recalled. "Little did my brother and I know, we
were tasting what would become known around the world as Pizza Hut
pizza."

How'd they come up with that name?

Economy of letters, it seems. The local Wichita Coca-Cola
distributor was willing to provide an outside hanging sign for free,
but it was a small sign - there was only enough room for about nine
letters. Dan's wife Beverly thought the building looked like a hut, and
that was it.

Interestingly, the sign on
Pizza Hut #1 now bears a Pepsi logo instead of Coke - but
then, PepsiCo bought the company in 1977!

Franchising

The
Carneys incorporated and started franchising right away (PH #2
opened in Topeka in 1959), with what was then a unique
model - franchising territories instead of individual stores.
Soon the company had a large network of franchisees and most
of
them owned multiple locations in their areas. Many years later, when they became more corporate, the company started opening more and more
company-owned locations and buying back franchised units.
Today, their stores are approximately 50% franchised and 50% corporate owned.

The Face of
Pizza Hut

The earliest Pizza Huts
had no standard look. In 1963, Pizza
Pete, the chain's mascot, was introduced. Designed by one of
Dan Carney's fraternity brothers, his hat floated above his head, and
in an apparent nod to Picasso, both his eyes were on the same side of
his nose!

As for the look of the restaurants, in 1964, the interior design that
would be the template for all Pizza
Huts for years to come was
introduced.

What About
Their Pizza?

In all our research for this section, the pizza is about the last thing
ever mentioned. Pizza
Hut is all about business and pizza is
simply the product. Of course they want to make and serve a good pizza,
but like all chains and franchises, it's even more important that they
make a standardized product - a pizza that's the same in Wichita as it
is
in New Jersey, as it is in Ireland, as it is in Yerevan, Armenia (where
they've recently opened).

We found PH's
first national print ad, published in 1970, which
did talk about the pizza:

...First,
we ladle on the pizza sauce. Most pizzerias paint on the sauce with a
brush...

Next,
we lay slices of mozzarella cheese edge-to-edge all across the pizza
base. This gives every Pizza Hut Pizza an even cheese blanket that's
impossible to get when grated cheese is used...

And thirdly, we roll-out fresh dough for every order...

These three things make our pizza the best in the world.

So, the dough is rolled out, they don't paint the sauce on with a
brush, and they use sliced mozzarella.

There you have it.

Interesting
Pizza Hut
Facts

In 1971 Pizza Hut
became the #1 pizza chain in the world, both in sales and number of
units. That has not changed.

In 1972 the chain was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, opened their 1,000th store
(oddly, in Wichita!), and opened their first store outside the U.S. (in
Costa Rica).

They did
not start offering delivery of their pizzas until 1986. In
1989, they delivered pizza to the White House, for a "Reading Is
Fundamental" pizza party thrown by Barbara Bush.

Yes, they were the first national chain to offer online ordering - in a
test location in Santa Cruz, California in 1994.

2001 - the perfect year for it - the company delivers pizza to outer space, sending pizzas to the
International Space Station.

Say what you will about Pizza
Hut - they sure know how to market their product!